Hamersley Iron – Rio Tinto

Case Study

Overview

Hamersley has been using Hosemasters Predictive Maintenance Program for the past 4 years on the Rail Positioner in Dampier, Western Australia.

Hamersley’s Rail Positioners had been in use in Dampier for approximately 10 years with no focused maintenance program for hose assembly replacement. Hose assemblies were only replaced when they failed. On average Hamersley were losing 1000 litres of oil and 15 hours downtime each month from hose assembly failure.

Hamersley estimates that one hour of down-time costs tens of thousands of dollars in lost production, so every time a hose assembly failed the consequential costs were considerable.

Hosemasters assessed the most critical section of the machine that needed hose assembly replacement proposed a draft change-out schedule that coincided with Hamersley’s scheduled maintenance shutdowns. Every time a hose assembly was replaced the draft predictive maintenance program was modified to reflect Hosemasters recommendation of when the hose should be changed-out next. The change-out date would depend largely upon the working pressure, the fluid being used, ambient temperature and environmental conditions. Over a short period of time an accurate and comprehensive predictive maintenance program was established which resulted in remarkable improvements in productivity and minimisation of down time.

To our knowledge Hamersley Iron have not experienced any down time due to blown hoses since Hosemasters implemented the Hosemasters Predictive Maintenance Program.